Summary: Spacecraft, satellites, and spent rocket stages in Earth orbit can be
seen from the ground, looking like bright stars moving across the sky. On a
typical evening, several satellites are bright enough to see, even from
well-lit urban environments. Most people have seen orbiting satellites, but
mistaken them for airplanes. Like the planets, satellites are visible by
reflected sunlight. In the middle of the night, satellites fly through the
Earth's shadow, and are invisible. But in the hours before dawn and after
dusk, when it's still daylight at orbital altitudes, satellites can be observed floating across the night sky. Satellites are best
observed with the unaided eye - a telescope is not needed (or even helpful for
the casual observer, because they move so quickly across the sky).

Satellites follow predictable orbital tracks, and predictions are available
from heavens-above.com. If you're
near Boston, you can use these direct links (the website calculates upcoming satellite
passes on
request, so the links can be used or bookmarked at any time, they're not specific to
the convention):

For any satellite pass, it's helpful to go outside about 5-10 minutes before
the predicted time, so your eyes have a chance to adapt to darkness, and you
have time to get oriented and find the right part of the sky.

The International Space Station is the brightest satellite in orbit, but
during 2012 Arisia, ISS will be flying over in the morning sky - not too
convenient for easy observation. If you happen to be awake, on
Monday
morning at 6:33 am, ISS will pass very high in the northwestern sky (almost
straight overhead, through the Big Dipper), moving from the southwest to the
northeast. ISS will be the brightest star in the sky.

Sean Sullivan: Photography in the Arisia 2012 Art Show

ENDEAVOUR (Endeavour, 28 April 2011):
When the shuttle is at the launch pad,
it is normally enclosed by a service structure that provides access and
weather protection. A day before launch, this structure is pulled away, and
the shuttle becomes visible. At this point, photographers take the iconic
shot of the shuttle ready for launch. This image was from the night before
the first launch attempt for Endeavour's final flight, carrying the Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer physics experiment to the space station.

FINAL FLIGHT (Atlantis, 8 July 2011):
This photograph was taken by a 'remote
camera' located only 700 feet from the space shuttle, in a grassy field at
launch pad 39-A. I set up the camera 24 hours before launch, and it was
configured to automatically fire when a custom-built sensor system detected
the sound of the shuttle's engines.

ABOVE THE TRANSFER AISLE (Atlantis, 18 May 2011):
Inside the enormous 526-foot
high Vehicle Assembly Building, the space shuttle is hoisted into mid-air, in
preparation for mating to the fuel tank and solid rocket boosters. This was
the final time that a shuttle was lifted in the VAB, and NASA was extremely
helpful in providing access to the news media.

UNITED (Atlantis, 17 May 2011):
Two months before launch, the shuttle is
transported from its hanger to the enormous VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building).
During this 'rollover', the shuttle is moved across a short stretch of roadway
at the Kennedy Space Center. Rollover was one of the rare opportunities for a
close-up view of the orbiter under daylight.

HYDROGEN SUPPLY (Discovery, 5 November 2010):
An unusual vantage point from the northeast side of launch pad 39-A, from the road within the Kennedy Space
Center that runs alongside the Atlantic Ocean.

HATCH (Discovery:, 22 June 2011):
Three months after Discovery returned to
Earth at the end of its last mission, I was given an extraordinary opportunity
to take photographs aboard the space shuttle's middeck and cockpit. This is a
photograph of the shuttle airlock's hatch from the inside.

CO-ORBITAL (9 September 2009):
Orbiting satellites are sometimes visible as
bright stars moving across the sky. In this 15-second exposure, the Space
Station (above, trailing) and the shuttle Discovery (below, leading) move
along the same orbital trajectory, but separated by about 250 miles, a day
after the shuttle departed the station during flight STS-128. Although the
spacecraft appear as lines in the photograph, that is an effect of the time
exposure, they looked like moving stars. Photo from Charlestown MA.